Evgeny Najer is 2015 European Champion

3/11/2015 – Following a fascinating rest day in Old Jerusalem, in the final round, Evgeny Najer completed his final sprint with a draw and the title. In the midst of numerous safe results (AKA short draws) to guarantee a seat in the World Cup, one that stood out was Bartel Mateusz, who finished in third after beating Nepomniachtchi with an inspired sacrificial attack. Large illustrated report.

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On the second Saturday prior to the last round the players enjoyed once again an enjoyable and instructive excursion. This time it was a city tour dedicated to the old city of the Israeli capital led by the chess NM and tourist guide Peter Gokhvat.

Getting ready to visit a bit of history

During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times,
attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.

Round eleven

The gong for the start of the 11th and final round was jointly hit by the guest of honour
MK Zeev Elkin, chairman of the Likud party in the Knesset ( the Israeli parliament), a chess
enthusiast himself who blessed the participants in Hebrew, English and Russian, and the
president of the European Chess Union GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili.

The fresh European champion for 2015 is Russian GM Evgeny Najer! In the final round having a better position he accepted a draw offer by his compatriot Denis Khismatullin to secure the desired championship title though not before making sure that David Navara, the other runner-up, wouldn’t achieve more than a draw against Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov.

The final step before becoming champion

Top-seed David Navara came just short of winning with 8.0/11 with a 2801 performance

The new champion scored 8.5/11 ahead of Navara, Bartel and Khismatullin with 8.0/11 each. 22 players scored 7.5 points each securing a place in the world cup games next October in the Azeri capital of Baku.

Georgian IM Nino Batsiashvili finished in the middle of the pack with 6.0/11

Enjoying the many activities surrounding the tournament

The great upset of the championship was the poor finish of the former continental champion, Russian Ian Nepomnianchtchi; who had led the field to what seemed to be a second title but managed to score just half a point in the last three rounds with an especially painful defeat against Polish Mateusz Bartel, and missing the qualifying group by a half-point.

To his credit, Bartel's win was an inspired attack, sacrificing the knight on move fourteen:

The greatest surprise of the last round was the young Israeli Ohad Kraus who beat former European champion, Russian Vladimir Potkin scoring a GM norm and mind you he is just an untitled 2190 rated player!

Prize giving

The winner's trophy

The prize giving was attended by the board of the European chess union and started with a projected blessing by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu .Speeches were made by President of the ECU, GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili (himself a former European champion) and ACP (Association of chess professionals) president GM Emil Sutovsky who both praised the superb organization of the event expressing their hope for more such major tournaments in Israel soon enough.

The ceremony included a spectacular dance and light show

Lights were provided to include the audience in the show

Together with Moshe Slav chairman of the Israel chess federation and Amiram Kaplan, chairman of the organizing committee and secretary of the ECU Thodoros Tsorbatzoglou awarded the 120 thousand Euro prize-fund and the huge trophies.

In addition to the general standings winners special prizes were given to the best ACP premium members and to the best seniors headed by GMs Alexander Beliavsky (Slovenia), Valery Neverov (Ukraine) and Alex Khuzman (Israel) on 6.5 points each. Best Junior was Polish GM Jan Krzysztof Duda on 6.5/11 and best Jerusalem player was Ori Kobo on 5.5 and a final norm for the IM title.

Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications.

See also

1/28/2018 – Magnus Carlsen won the 80th Tata Steel Masters which was decided in a blitz tiebreak over Dutch number one Anish Giri. The players contested two blitz games with 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move, with no sudden death Armageddon game needed. Vidit played solidly to earn a draw that was enough to win the Challengers, as Korobov could not manage to pull off a win with black on-demand. | Photo: Alina l'Ami TataSteelChess.com

See also

7/12/2017 – National Cup games, in chess and in other sports, are usually run in a “knock out” system with half of the remaining competitors eliminated in each round. For already more than a generation, Israeli chess has been adopting a more innovative and dynamic method to run this traditional enterprise. At the end of the league season, 40 teams from the top divisions regroup for a day of real fun: A five-round rapid Swiss competition with almost all the country’s top players taking part.

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.

Discuss

@Danstacey:
First of all, I didn't bring up anything, but merely responded to moronic arguments. Furthermore, are you accusing ChessBase of using this article for political purposes? Either take it up with them, or go to another site. But mind you, whatever chess site you are on, such behaviour (as dumbly as you may believe you're doing the world a service with it) will always be considered as distasteful by a majority of chess fans.

Danstacey 3/12/2015 10:00

Well said erikerik. It's aconcagua who is bringing indefensible politics into a chess arena. I will always be willing to correct articles which misrepresent the status of Jerusalem/Israel for political purposes and not be put off by aggressive replies.

aconcagua 3/12/2015 01:25

@erikerik:
I think I can speak for the majority of readers here when I say that we are not interested in haring political discussions on a website dedicated to chess reporting.
And please, stop your leftist bantering. First of all, I was talking specifically about this tournament (as opposed to the one in Libya that you mentioned). As a matter of fact, the Arab minority in Israel enjoys more rights than in all other Arab countries combined. There are Arab members of parliament, supreme court justices, etc. Stop believing everything marginal leftist organizations spew, and start caring about the actual human rights abuses happening every day around the world.
Because frankly, this endless bashing of Israel is not only morally wrong and antiquated, it's becoming boring.

erikerik 3/12/2015 12:29

@aconcagua You wrote:" Nobody is interested in hearing them." That is not speaking for yourself.
" Israel is a free and open society and places no barriers on race, color, or creed." I am afraid that is not true.See link.

http://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7404

aconcagua 3/11/2015 10:37

@erikerik: Of course I speak for myself. Should I be uttering your opinions instead? What a fatuous remark.
The thing with playing countries like Libya, Iran, or other totalitarian regimes is that many players are not allowed to participate (if my memory serves me right, Ghaddafi specifically forbade Jewish players to participate). Israel is a free and open society and places no barriers on race, color, or creed. Sport (and, by extension chess) is something that should celebrate cooperation and bring down barriers.
This tournament in Israel's capital was a wonderful example of that and a very enjoyable experience for all participating players. But then again, for some, any good news from Israel is bad news...

erikerik 3/11/2015 09:54

@aconcagua speak for yourself.
Chess is business, chess is PR.
Some people said it was wrong to play in Libya under Ghadaffy but hey, there are always people who love to inject politics into any chess situation.

aconcagua 3/11/2015 05:00

Not at all. It is only normal for them to appear in what they hold at their capital at a chess tournament they helped to organize. Such appearances are completely normal at prestigious events and especially chess happenings.
None of the players seemed to have a problem with it (I've spoken to quite a few), quite the contrary, they appeared thrilled with such honorable presence.
If you have a problem with Israel, its government, or its policies, nobody is interested in hearing them. Certainly not on a chess website. Deal with it.

Danstacey 3/11/2015 04:51

On the contrary, the "blessing" by Netanyahu and the attendance by the chair of Likud injected politics into the situation.

aconcagua 3/11/2015 03:28

@KevinC: Right you are! They are always ignorant people who love to inject politics into any chess situation. Congrats to Israel and its capital for a wonderful tournament!

KevinC 3/11/2015 01:27

@Danstacey, this is a chess site, so in that context, who cares? I don't have a horse in this race, but for all practical purposes, they own it, and it is their capital.

Danstacey 3/11/2015 09:38

Please note that the international community does not recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the old city is occupied territory. I am surprised that the chairman of Likud and Netanyahu's involvement passes without comment in this article.